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Monday, December 13, 2010

I know I promised a second In My Mailbox post, but you'll have to keep being patient. My plans to make another vlog just didn't work out yesterday, but I'm still hopeful for tonight. I'm also trying to catch up with reviews that I need to be posting, and I want to start with Matched by Ally Condie.

This was a surprise review since I didn't request the book, but I was beyond excited to get a copy. The cover is gorgeous (the picture on here cannot do it justice) and there was a lot of buildup about how awesome it would be, not just on book blogs, but in several magazines I read as well.

If you haven't heard about it, the basic story is a young girl in a futuristic/dystopian society where the government chooses your spouse for you at age 18. Cassia, our protagonist, is thrilled when she is matched with her childhood best friend. However, when she briefly catches a glimpse of another boy-man (it's hard to correctly label an 18 year old as a boy - but man doesn't seem quite right either) on her match screen (or whatever it's called), she begins to question the foundations of her society and has to choose between her match and the boy-man she is falling in love with.

Writing
Excellent. I have absolutely no complaints on style, editing, dialogue, etc. I appreciated the characters, found them believable, and enjoyed the detailed world-building. If you're looking for a well-written YA book, look no further. It's not very often that I have absolutely no issues with the writing in a YA book, but I have no complaints for this one.

MST3K
This is yet another book I think I would have enjoyed more had I not been on a steady diet of YA for the past three months. I still have finals left to take, but I've already jumped into some more substantial reading and it's so refreshing. I wish I hadn't read Matched right after Delirium, because it really caused the plots to blend together. Had I read Matched before Delirium, I may have preferred it. As it was, however, I would have to say I enjoyed Delirium more. I found myself getting confused about what the "rules" were in the Society of Matched because I was thinking of the "rules" for the world of Delirium. Again, had I read Matched first, I may be saying the opposite.

I highly recommend Matched. The story was unique and interesting and I liked the characters, but I was somewhat disappointed that I didn't just fall in love with it. I'm passing it on to Bestie next to get her take, and I can guarantee that I"ll finish the series. I'll probably re-read it when the sequel comes out and see if I have a different take on it when my brain has not been completely innundated with YA dystopias.

3 comments:

It's so interesting what you said about Matched and Delirium and preferring Delirium because you read it first, because I've heard that from a few other people. I have read Matched and really enjoyed it, but haven't read Delirium yet. Fortunately that means there will be several months separating my readings, so I hopefully will be able to keep everything straight!